The present invention is directed to a feed additive composition which contains enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea; a method for making a feed additive containing enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea; a process for improving the nutritive value of the spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea by enzymatic treatment; a method for feeding livestock with a feed containing an enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea feed additive and a process for improving poultry feed conversion, breast meat yield and intestinal strength by feeding a feed containing an enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea feed additive. Preferably, the spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea is treated with a cellulase and at least one glycosidase, and then concentrated.
The world population continues to grow, but land for food production is finite. In order to keep up with the growing food demand, improvements in the utilization of food resources will be needed to maintain the current living standards.
In many areas of the world, diets containing low metabolizable energy content are utilized. Diets in these countries are not supplemented with fat. As a consequence, there is a need to increase the energy efficiency for utilization of low fat diets. In developing or developed countries supplemental concentrated fat is being eliminated from the diet for health reasons. In addition, there are a surprising number of problems associated with the addition of concentrated fat to diet rations to increase the metabolizable energy (ME) content of the feed.
Oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids in fat is know to lead to the formation of peroxides and free radicals. This in turn leads to the oxidation of feed nutrients and vitamins. There is also evidence available that indicates that high fat diets can lead to ventricular failure and/or ascites problems in broiler chickens. Some sources of animal feed fat include restaurant waste fat that has been partially hydrogenated to create un-natural fatty acids with trans double bonds that can interfere with fertility, fatty acid metabolism and the energy value of the feed. Another issue is that the presence of free fatty acids in commercial and fats that can have adverse effect on production and may have a anti-microbial effect in the chicken gut. Blended fats are also frequently contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB""s), pesticide residues, heavy metals, and gossypol from cotton seed oil soapstock. Feed mill managers have to vigilant about all these issues. It is well known that ingested fat (and materials dissolved in it like PCB) can be directly incorporated into the fat of the animal that consumes it and this may present important health risks. In addition, the fat in animal rations can influence the taste of the meat. For example, more than 1% fish oil in chicken diets will cause a distinct fish-type odor in the meat or eggs. The effect of high fat content (especially animal fat) on product taste is another issue that some producers are beginning to pay close attention to. The ability to avoid the use of fat and still obtain the same productivity is therefore of general interest.
There is a continuing need for higher efficiency in food production and the urgency of providing solutions will only increase with time. The use of high energy diets which include several percent of fat to promote efficient animal growth is not always possible or desirable due to the high cost of fat or vegetable oils, or limited amounts of available animal fat in some of the most highly populated parts of the world (for example in China and India). There is a basic inefficiency in using the available fat in feed. For example, in the chemical and soap industries the fat could have more value. Finally, there are a number of health issues and problems associated with the incorporation of exogenous concentrated fats in animal diets. These issues are a further indication that a reduced fat, reduced calorie, animal feed diet that maintains high feeding efficiency is urgently needed.
A need therefore exists for a method to increase the efficiency with which monogastric animals utilize feed rations that contain a low metabolizeable energy content. Likewise, a need exists for a feed diet that can be utilized efficiently by monogastic animals without addition of fat.
One approach to improved efficiency has been to enhance the digestion of feeds by the inclusion of enzymes. Enzymatically aided digestion not only yields more meat per pound of feed, but also reduces the volume of manure and the disposal cost.
Some enzymes have been clearly recognized in the marketplace for their value as additives in animal feeds: xylanse, xcex2-glucanase, enzymes that cleave phosphorus from phytic acid, hemicellulates (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,473), ferulic acid esterase (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,143,543) and mannanase. In addition to enzyme feed additives, small molecules such as aminocarboxylic acid derivatives as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,086 are also useful, and marine mammals treated with proteolytic enzymes have also been disclosed (U.S. Pat. No. 6,153,251). Fermentation products are also known as feed additives, such as a fermented formula feed obtainable from mixing a soybean feed material with wheat as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,416; and liquid Saccharopolyspora solubles. However, there is still a need for inexpensive and more efficient additives.
The invention is directed to a feed additive composition comprising: an enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea; said spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea treated with a cellulase and at least one glycosidase prior to concentration. Preferably, the beer is treated with at least a first glycosidase and a second glycosidase, where the first glycosidase may be a pectinolytic enzyme, and the second glycosidase may be an arabinosidase. The cellulase may be xcex2-glucanase. The pectinolytic enzyme may be polygalactouronase; and the arabinosidase may be xcex1-N-arabinofurinosidase. Preferably, the beer is treated with less than 1 weight percent of each enzyme per total volume of said spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea. The composition may have from about 40 to about 60 percent solids; a pH of from about 4 to about 5, the solids having average particle size of from about 2.5 to about 4 microns.
Preferably the composition has from about 45 to about 50 percent solids; a pH of from about 4.3 to about 4.5, the solids having an average particle size of from about 3.1 to about 3.5 microns.
The invention is also directed to a method for making a feed additive comprising the steps of:
a) treating a spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea with acid at a temperature of from about 80xc2x0 C. to about 100xc2x0 C. to form a heat-treated spent fermentation beer;
b) cooling said heat-treated spent fermentation beer to a temperature of from about 40xc2x0 C. to about 60xc2x0 C.;
c) treating said spent fermentation beer resulting from step b) with an enzyme mixture for two to twenty hours at a pH of from about 3 to about 6 to form an activated spent fermentation beer;
wherein said enzyme mixture includes a cellulase and at least one glycosidase;
d) concentrating said activated spent fermentation beer to at least 31 percent solids; and then,
e) recovering an enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea feed additive product.
The invention is also directed to a process for improving nutritive value of spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea as a feed additive by enzyme treatment comprising the steps of:
a) treating a spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea with acid at a temperature of from about 80xc2x0 C. to about 100xc2x0 C. to form a heat-treated spent fermentation beer;
b) cooling said spent fermentation beer to a temperature of from about 40xc2x0 C. to about 60xc2x0 C.;
c) treating said spent fermentation beer resulting from step b) with an enzyme mixture for two to twenty hours at a pH of from about 3 to about 6 to form an activated spent fermentation beer;
wherein said enzyme mixture includes a cellulase and at least one glycosidase;
d) concentrating said activated spent fermentation beer to at least 31 percent solids; and then,
e) recovering an improved enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea feed additive product.
In this process, the enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea product provides improved feed conversion.
The invention is also directed to a method for feeding livestock comprising the step of feeding livestock with a feed containing the feed additive described above. Preferably, the feed additive has an inclusion rate of from about 0.1 to about 10 weight percent per total weight of feed. Livestock includes poultry, swine, fish, crustaceans and cattle.
The invention is also directed to a process for improving feed conversion, breast meat yield and intestinal strength in poultry comprising adding the feed additive described above to poultry feed. Preferably, the feed additive is from about 0.1 to about 10 weight percent per total weight of feed.
The present invention is directed to a feed additive composition which contains enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea; a method for making a feed additive containing enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea; a process for improving the nutritive value of spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea by enzymatic treatment; a method for feeding livestock with a feed containing an enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea feed additive and a process for improving poultry feed conversion, breast meat yield and intestinal strength by feeding a feed containing an enzyme-treated, concentrated spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea feed additive. Preferably, the spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea is treated with a cellulase and at least one glycosidase, and then concentrated.
Liquid Saccharopolyspora solubles (LSS) is a by-product from the manufacture of the antibiotic erythromycin, available from Abbott Laboratories. The antibiotic is produced by a fermentation process involving Saccharopolyspora species of bacteria. The fermentation medium for bacterial growth is largely soy-based and serves as a carbon source. When fermentation is complete, antibiotic is removed from the fermentation medium. After post-fermentation removal of antibiotic, the remaining material is referred to as a spent fermentation beer. This spent fermentation beer is then concentrated to approximately 30% solids, and the resulting product (called LSS) has been utilized as an additive in the feed industry for many years. LSS was traditionally called liquid streptomyces solids, but due to a recent nomenclature change, is now referred to as liquid Saccharopolyspora solids.
LSS is typically incorporated into feed as an additive in an amount of approximately 14-15 lb per ton of total feed in poultry or swine diets.
In the present invention, the spent beer from a fermentation of Saccharopolyspora is modified by treating it with enzymes, and allowing enzymatic digestion to occur over a period of hours. While some enzymes are known as feed additives, and LSS is known as a feed additive, there is no teaching of modifying a spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea with enzymatic treatment to improve the spent fermentation beer""s usefulness as a feed additive.
The enzymes utilized can each be added individually to the spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea, or they can be premixed and added together at once. Order and methods of addition are not critical. Many different enzymes are useful, though we have found at least two enzymes to be essential: a cellulase and at least one glycosidase.
The cellulase may be xcex2-glucanase.
The enzyme mixture may contain one or more glycosidases. Preferably, the enzyme mixture contains at least a first glycosidase and a second glycosidase.
The first glycosidase may be a pectinolytic enzyme. A pectinolytic enzyme is one which hydrolyzes and depolymerizes pectin. A presently preferred pectinolytic enzyme is polygalactouronase (PG), also referred to as pectin depolymerase or pectinase.
The second glycosidase may be an arabinosidase. Arabinosidases are hydrolases which cleave L-arabinose from oligo- or polysaccharides which contain xcex1-linked L-arabinofuranosyl residues at the non-reducing ends.
Glycosidase and cellulase activity is necessary in the enzyme treatment utilized in the present invention. Each type of enzyme activity may be derived from a single enzyme, a combination of enzymes, or an enzyme complex.
The amount of enzyme which is required to modify the spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea is low, under 1%, and preferably under 0.01% of a 100 L spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea solution.
Other enzymes which may also be included in the mixture as useful for treating spent fermentation beer of Saccharopolyspora erythraea include acidic fungal proteases, xylanases, galactomannanses and hemicellusases, among others.
Other additives, such as anti-oxidants, probiotics, flavoring agents, enzymes, anti-fungal agents, preservatives, yeast or pellet binders may also be added to the feed additive composition described above. For example, propionic acid (in an amount of less than 15%) may be added to the composition.
The feed additive of the present invention is a viscous liquid, which is sprayed into a feed mixer to produce a feed. The additive of the present invention can be mixed into the feed in an amount of from about 0.1% to about 10% of the total feed. After mixing, the feed is pelleted. Feed pelleted to various sizes, depending upon the age of the animal to be fed, is then given to the animal.
Of course, the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments and modes of operation described herein and it is possible to imagine a number of variations in the details without departing from the scope of this invention.
The examples below are presented to describe preferred embodiments and utilities of the invention and are not meant to limit the invention unless otherwise stated in the claims appended hereto.